French Citizens Head to the Polls After Period of Record-Low Real Estate Price Growth

The French people go to the polls Sunday for the presidential election between Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and the far-right’s Marine Le Pen. The victor will face a sluggish economy, one where house prices have declined 4.3% during the five years of Francois Hollande’s tenure.

Knight Frank, a luxury real estate consulting company, has compiled data on the past 47 years of housing sales in France, which shows that the current French president, a Socialist, is the only one to have seen prices decline from the beginning to the end of their tenure.

“The French economy hasn’t had any significant growth over the last few years,” said Kate Everett-Allen, a partner on the international research team at Knight Frank, who helped compile the data.

Prices rose by 4.9% over Republican Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year term, from 2007 to 2012. France saw smaller declines after the global financial crisis in 2008, when prices in France dipped 9.3%, and they have remained largely static since, according to Knight-Frank.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a centrist, in office from May 1974 to May 1981, saw the greatest home price gains, with average prices accelerating 141.5%. Republican Jacques Chirac, who held office from 1995 to 2007, wasn’t far behind, with 138.2%.

But Ms. Everett-Allen noted that Mr. Chirac’s tenure was almost twice as long as Mr. d’Estaing’s, and on an annualized basis, Mr. d'Estaing recorded 20.2% average annual growth. Mr. Chirac had a lesser 11.5%.

Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was only readily available from 1970 on, Ms. Everett-Allen said.

Knight-Frank has also issued its 2016 “Inside View” of France, which takes a look at the country’s prime second home destinations. According to that report, the Alps and South France are as popular as ever, with sales volumes the strongest within the €1 million ($US1.099 million) to €5 million (US$5.49 million) price range. Transactions above €5 million are slow, according to the report.